The Paintings Came Tumbling Down

Titled in German The Rapid Disappearance of the Heaviest Paintings in the World, this color documentary without narration opens by surveying the paintings and graffiti that used to cover the grey concrete of the Berlin Wall on its west side - paintings that were a record of the people's relationship with a totalitarian structure which no longer exists. Faces predominated - all kinds of faces; particularly striking were those of Communist leaders against a red background. Then we see hands raising hammers and chisels, beginning to chip away at the wall. One picture, captioned Smash All Walls, seems to encourage its own destruction, and these ordinary Berliners don't want to leave the work to the authorities. Gradually night falls, crowds gather to cheer, the drilling equipment is set in motion, and huge sections of the wall begin to go down. Hundreds of thousands all over the world watched these scenes on television - but only this film is now left to show what was destroyed along with the wall.